


Throwback

by Ashling



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Canon Backstory, Carleton College, Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, College, Dialogue Heavy, F/M, Married Couple, i'm SOFT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-08 08:19:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17977709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashling/pseuds/Ashling
Summary: Ben & Leslie go to Ben's old college, and Ben shows Leslie a place he's always wanted to show her.





	Throwback

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Vivien](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vivien/gifts).



> chag sameach & I hope you enjoy!
> 
> photo credit: the Carleton College website

"Ben!" Leslie was beaming and waving and nearly jumping up and down.

Ben couldn't help it; he grinned, squinting against the afternoon sun. But then there was an elderly professor, so he held the door open for that professor. Except after the professor came a student, and then another student, and just when Ben was about to close the door, he spotted yet another coming through the opposite way. _Sorry_ , he mouthed to his wife.

In reply, Leslie flapped her hand at him, as if to say, _no problem_.

When Ben finally was able to get away, he took Leslie's hand in his own and started down the sidewalk with her. "You look happy," he said. "I take your recruiting session went well?"

"Amazing," said Leslie. "I think National Park Service is going to get at least twenty internship applications."

"You're the only person I know that likes reading internship applications."

"Come on. I love cover letters! People put so much passion into writing about national parks, it gives me goosebumps." Leslie paused.

"What?" said Ben.

"Almost everyone does," Leslie conceded. "But occasionally I get a cover letter that says: Dear Mrs. Leslie, I am so excited to apply for this internship with you and Beesley Finance."

"What, they copied the wrong sentence?"

"No, it's just a whole cover letter about how they really want a finance job. And sometimes the writing quality is all right, but..."

"The National Park Service doesn't have any investment positions?"

“Zero.”

A third voice cut in, unfamiliar but friendly: "Excuse me?"

They both turned around, and Ben, brain still half in Campaign Mode, said his friendliest: "Hi there!" to the blue-haired student that was looking them up and down.

"Are you Ben Wyatt?"

"Yeah.”

"You're gonna be in Congress."

"That’s me."

"And you invented the Cones of Dunshire."

"Uh-huh." Now Ben sounded a little uncertain.

The student threw back their head and cackled like a full-on witch. "That's awesome, dude!" They turned and walked away, leaving Ben and Leslie staring after them.

"You're popular," Leslie said, with a twinkle in her eye.

Ben smiled back, and they went on walking. "I'm a novelty. The gamer Congressman."

"Aw, honey, don't downplay your accomplishments. You're also the only Congressman that got beaten by his wife at bowling on television."

"Higher further faster, baby."

"I know you're joking, but there's a part of me that wants to skip the memorial dinner on Tuesday and go watch Captain Marvel for the third time, so you need to stop quoting it at me if you don't want a minor scandal on your hands."

Ben knew exactly when to take his wife seriously. "Okay," he said at once, and then, "We're here."

They were standing at the top of a sloping green hill that ran down into a vast soccer field fringed by forest. Between the setting sun and the autumn leaves, it seemed like the edges of the field were aflame.

"It's beautiful," Leslie said.

"Yeah." Ben stuck his hands in his pockets. “It’s kind of important to me, this place. I used to come here a lot a lot at night, with the moon overhead. Thinking."

"Brooding. Like Batman."

"Like an angsty little Bruce Wayne," Ben agreed, not displeased by the comparison.

"But you killed it in college."

"I did alright, but I wasn’t happy. When I applied, I was still running for mayor, and I had all these grand ideas in my head about making Ice Town a Midwest success story and then coming to Carleton like some kind of a political prodigy. But then the city went bankrupt, and when I got here all everyone knew about me was that headline. I wasn’t good at making friends. Too embarrassed."

"Oh, honey."

"Ice Town Costs Ice Clown His Town Crown is objectively funny, and I totally deserved it. But it also sucked."

Leslie leaned against Ben, and he put an arm around her shoulders. They both stared out over the field.

Ben went on, "I wasn't used to having such a big school, even if two thousand isn't much compared to other colleges. I missed my family, and I got lost in the shuffle, and I kept trying to do more and more things because it felt like being busy would prove something. But I was just lonely. Sometimes I would come out here and daydream about an alternative universe where my family was magically in town but also too far away to ever surprise me at my dorm, and I had a roommate that didn't smoke pot all the time, and a position with the DFL, and friends."

"Makes sense," said Leslie, too polite to mention that while Ben was daydreaming about having a position at the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, she actually had one as secretary of the Pawnee Democrats.

"Yeah, but these were like really, really elaborate daydreams."

"Like 'I invented the Cones of Dunshire in two weeks of mostly depression napping' level daydreams?"

"Exactly. And sometimes I had a girlfriend in them. But mostly I didn't, because that felt weird and arrogant. Cause she was always really cool, and I never felt like I was good enough for her. Even in my daydreams."

"Good thing I'm not too cool for anyone, then."

"No. Actually, she knew Krav Maga and she could speak Sindarin, and if I had to compare you two, she wouldn't even come close. Leslie, you're ten times more awesome."

"Ben."

"And if I could go back in time and talk to tiny Ben, with his binder-sized planner and his terrible fashion choices and his self-hate, I'd tell him: There's someone out there waiting for you that's better than anyone you could ever dream up. And also, brush your teeth more.”

“Ben.”

“But mostly, Leslie’s out there. So stop feeling so sorry for yourself. You’re the luckiest guy in the world. You just don’t know it yet."

“Ben?”

“Yeah?”

"This is the part where I kiss you."

"My favorite part."

 


End file.
